Curly Girl Journal #4: Taming of the Curls (Rick Rack Whoa)

One day near Halloween last year I was browsing on Cute Girl’s Hairstyles and was intrigued by the rick-rack technique using hair pins. I have never used hairpins, and since I have a willing guinea pig subject there seemed no reason not to try something new.

You take sections of hair and spiral it on the hair pin.

I try to stagger placement because there just isn’t a lot of hair to work with, but I can already see that I’ve created a few issues with parts. It is one of those things you have to learn by trial and error.

They turned out as expected. Notice how hairpins are open and aren’t like bobby pins.

I really had fun using the hairpins and they were really cheap. One package was more than enough for my daughter’s hair. I used bobby pins to secure the ends and she slept on them all night.

Oh, my. Springy and tight. Uh Oh.

I stare at what I’ve done for a moment. Another case of too many and making them too tight and too close to the scalp (next time we’ll aim for the lower end of the hair and start well away from the head). Minion #1 jumps around for a while whipping her head around to make the sections bounce and spring. She asks if I’m done, and I say no. This is going to be one poofy hair do.

Whoa.

Channeling 1988 was Not exactly what I had intended. People used to spend a fortune on hair products and expensive crimping irons to achieve what I did by accident with a $1.50 cent box of hairpins. Minion #1 goes to peek in the bathroom mirror and exclaims, “Wow! My hair is really big!”

It does settled down to a cute 80s coiffure.

I move a few puffs around, adjust some sproings, shift a few springs, and top it off with a head band. The effect does settle down to a recognizable type of wild, and lasts for several days. There was no way I was going to take a brush or comb to any of that. It was best to let it fall out a bit on it’s own then hose it down. Hair texture and thickness makes a huge difference in how these turn out, so if you are going to try them on your own hair it won’t necessarily turn out as Taylor Dayne as my daughter’s did.